Lung cancer is the No. 1 cause of cancer-related deaths in Hawaii, but it’s a treatable disease when caught early. Here’s what our community needs to know — including a hopeful message about how health-care professionals here are improving survival for lung cancer patients.
But first, I need to convey a heartbreaking reality.
For the second year in a row, the American Lung Association published in its State of Lung Cancer report that Hawaii ranked last in the nation for early detection of lung cancer. While that statistic is concerning, what’s perhaps more troubling is that lung cancer is the top cause of cancer-related deaths in Hawaii, and survival rates are worsening for women and Native Hawaiians.
Why — for a disease effectively treatable when caught early — are we losing more ohana and friends to the battle against lung cancer?
A few reasons:
>> Screening criteria favors individuals over 50 with a significant smoking history, but 60% of women with lung cancer are nonsmokers.
>> Women present at advanced stages because many are reluctant to get screened voluntarily, and because more men meet the criteria for insurance-covered CT screenings.
>> Indigenous people in Hawaii are most likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer.
Nationally, the average timeline from diagnosis to surgical treatment is six weeks, while in Hawaii, it’s eight to 10 weeks. After eight weeks, the chances of metastatic spread increase significantly, and a patient’s survival rate decreases by 10% with each centimeter of growth.
Simply said, too many high-risk patients forgo screening, diagnosis and treatment.
This brings me to the good news: We have a tremendous opportunity to change the future of cancer care, and we’ve already taken a giant leap forward as a state.
At the end of 2022, The Queen’s Health System made a significant investment in state-of-the-art technology that offers a minimally invasive procedure capable of diagnosing and removing lung cancer at earlier stages and smaller sizes. In November, we welcomed our first patient to the ION Robotic Navigational Bronchoscopy Program, a fully robotic, single-anesthetic procedure that diagnoses, stages and treats lung cancer in one setting.
In less than four hours, we can now accomplish what previously took an average of eight weeks in Hawaii — from clinical presentation to surgical treatment.
As a thoracic surgeon who was born and raised on Oahu and has devoted her medical career to the treatment of benign and malignant diseases of the chest, I can’t describe what an important turning point this program represents. Having co-founded the launch of the ION Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, which went on to become one of the top five ION programs in the country by volume, I know first-hand how access to this technology can change health outcomes. ION means faster, safer and more accurate biopsies of lung nodules, shorter hospital stays and quicker recoveries — and patients who get back on their feet with less pain, returning to work and daily life sooner.
If you or a loved one are in a high-risk category, please don’t take for granted the precious time it takes to turn from unknown to untreatable. Knowing you have access to this technology — only a short drive or short flight away — could mean the difference between putting off diagnosis and receiving just-in-time care that can save your life.
Please take the first step and get yourself screened. Early screening and expeditious treatment will be how we get Hawaii out of last place for early detection, and improve survival rates for women and Native Hawaiians.
Taryne A. Imai, M.D., M.E.H.P., F.A.C.S., is program director of thoracic surgery for the Queen’s University Medical Group.
